A Plea from the Homeless - The Housing Dilemma

[Avera]

Dearest Enix of Square,
Today I woke up from my bed with excitement. I came on to Gilgamesh to prepare for a glorious new era. I had saved up, had friends chip in, and had finally gotten enough money to hopefully buy a plot of land in the Lavender Beds. To my extreme displeasure, all of the plots had been sold away, and many of them didn't even have houses on them!. Later in the day I saw many people selling and monopolizing these plots of land for profits that far exceed the worth of the land. My suggestion is this: Limit how many houses a person can buy (Say, two or so) so that some of us less fortunate have a better chance of getting our own house. I hope my suggestion will not go to deaf ears, and thank you for your time in reading this.


P.S: Maybe make an actual suggestion ticket system that's easier to use and for you all to see it. (Took me forever to find the right forum...I hope this is the right one)

[Gokuhan]

The only way I see this being solved is to outright ban the "selling" of plots or put a system in the game that allows players to sell the land directly to other players but at let's say 80% of what was (or same price, w/e) that way players could actually get back some of their investment but wouldn't be able to price gouge.

[MistyMew]

The only way I see this being solved is to outright ban the "selling" of plots or put a system in the game that allows players to sell the land directly to other players but at let's say 80% of what was (or same price, w/e) that way players could actually get back some of their investment but wouldn't be able to price gouge.

agree and suggested this before, a legal, fair way for people to resell their homes would solve many issues, the gouging would cease, the lure to buy 100 homes in order to make bazillions from others would cease, availability would therefore increase (even if it may still be low) and the seller would get their investment back (as they should) even the 80% relinquished is not fair enough, 100% or forget it imo) Housing should never have been implemented without a way to resell was in place, extremely short sighted implememtaion that many customers are sadly still suffering for.

[Warghoul570]

I think the best way to handle it is to put a cap on how much a plot/house can be sold for that way flippers can't monopolize the wards. By banning the selling of houses outright your hurting the honest people that want to sell a smaller house they owned after upgrading to a bigger house

[Rawrz]

I think the best way to handle it is to put a cap on how much a plot/house can be sold for that way flippers can't monopolize the wards. By banning the selling of houses outright your hurting the honest people that want to sell a smaller house they owned after upgrading to a bigger house

The current way people "sell" houses is:

1)Buyer and Seller negotiate a price on a small house, say 20 million.
2)Buyer trades seller 20 times 1 mil each or Seller puts garbage on the market board for 20 mil and Buyer purchases it in same city without tax.
3)Seller relinquishes his rights to the plot.
4)The plot goes back up for sale
5) The buyer quickly pays the NPC placard for the plot (4 million for small.) And then purchases the actual house for 1 million more.

How much did the Seller gain?
20 Million
How much did the buyer spend?
25 Million
How would SE monitor these backwater trades and enforce caps?

No one can sell you a house. They are selling you their retirement from the plot. The NPC sells you the house. In FC trading its a little different and involves selling off the entire FC, which may include a house.

When a seller, sells you land, it's akin to holding a spot in line. They don't need to stand in the line, but because of its inherent value, they figure it's worth it to stand in it, until someone wants to pay to take their place and return or exponentiate their investment.

They need to offer an active reclamation system, for people to recuperate part of their investment so that they can upgrade/downsize as well as other fixes for the housing system.

My personal belief is that you don't own the property. You own the non-transferable rights to use the property.

Its not a direct fix. Much more would be needed to curb this issue. It is a start to allow people to actually use the housing they bought across all characters. Easy access to something you've paid for, which just happens to result in less housing needs.


A start to fixing Personal Housing:

• Allow alts to share one house. Increase tenant size per house (within reason), but decrease the number of houses 1 tenant can occupy at once.
• Players should be allowed only one House per Server.
• Players with more than one house currently will be able to keep their houses, unless evicted by reclamation system from inactivity. They will not, however, be able to share their houses with each alt, until only 1 house remains.

A start at fixing FC Housing:

• FCs can only transfer with a house in their possession if the previous GM stays in the FC for 1 week after the new GM has been appointed.
• The old GM cannot transfer GM status unless they have been the GM for 1 month or longer.
• The old GM cannot be banned or leave the FC until the week is up.
• If you would like to transfer the FC more quickly, you may demolish the plot for 80% of its value using the 3 day waiting period, then the set restrictions will not apply.

Additions that would affect both Personal and FC Housing:

• Give players back 80% of their money, 3 days after agreeing to return their house to the grand company the plot belongs to. (Day 0 sell house, Day 3 reconfirm the sale to help prevent scamming.)
  
  
• Housing demolished this way will be destroyed in 12 hours. A notice will be placed in a New NPC Sign next to the ward entrance of upcoming final demolitions. There will be an option to subscribe to housing demolitions via the NPC sign to be placed in your Timer section.(Housing that has been marked for demolition will show up here, starting at the 12 hour timer.)
  
  
  
• Make it clear upon log on for 3.3 and before each purchase thereafter that buying and selling plots is a bannable offense.'

So its more of a direction they need to move towards and not a single thing that needs done. Inflating prices like that would lead to no one buying housing/increased pricing everywhere else as people gravitate towards wanting one/increased flipping.

[Linadae]

Again, this is not flipping. House flipping involves buying property, improving said property, then selling the improved property for a higher price. Unless you buy an FC with a pre-decorated house, you are NOT buying a flipped property.

What is going on is a racketeering scheme. These people (lovingly called the Housing Mafia on Balmung) have created an artificial problem by purchasing houses they have no intention of using. Then selling the solution by offering to vacate for a ridiculous amount of gil.

You do NOT get an improved piece of land out of the deal, you get an empty plot. So flipping is definitely not what is going on.

BTW: IRL Racketeering is highly illegal and comes with jail time. In game I feel those participating should be banned, possibly permanently, and their houses should immediately be put back up for sale.

[MomomiMomi]

No, flipping can involve merely buying low and selling high. It doesn't require improvement.

[CuteWhisper]

The only way I see this being solved is to outright ban the "selling" of plots or put a system in the game that allows players to sell the land directly to other players but at let's say 80% of what was (or same price, w/e) that way players could actually get back some of their investment but wouldn't be able to price gouge.

This could work! I had to grab a small when I had enough for a med but they were all taken, that way the person who wants to relinquish the plot gets his gils back and the person who wants to buy it doesn't have to pay even more than what he should. Though people would still try to sell for more than what they could get so... Its not really fixing it

[LalafellDown]

The only way I see this being solved is to outright ban the "selling" of plots or put a system in the game that allows players to sell the land directly to other players but at let's say 80% of what was (or same price, w/e) that way players could actually get back some of their investment but wouldn't be able to price gouge.

that wont help, people will still buy up all the lands. Why sell it for 80% when they can have someone pay them much more to relinquish their plot. I didn't buy up all the lands just to sell it at 80% of the cost i'm here to make money. Unless the only way to relinquish the plot is to put it up for sale at 80%. that means people cant demolish their home or leave the server until its sold for that 80%. Its either pay me to demolish the house or no one gets the houses i will hoard them all to my self I'm not selling it for 80% i will loose money. <----- that's the mentality

[Naunet]

What is going on is a racketeering scheme. These people (lovingly called the Housing Mafia on Balmung) have created an artificial problem by purchasing houses they have no intention of using.

It's not an artificial problem, and it's pretty naiive to think that housing supply would not be a problem if people stopped buying them to sell. While what they're doing is reprehensible, stopping them will NOT fix the housing issue.